The Indian Army successfully conducted a user trial of nuclear capable medium range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Prithvi-II in a specially coordinated trajectory from a defence base off the Odisha coast on Tuesday.
Defence sources said the indigenously built missile was made to travel along an augmented ballistic trajectory. As per the coordination, the missile came down perfectly after attaining an altitude of around 60 km and again went up before zeroing in on the target as expected.
The test was aimed at checking the performance of manoeuvring stealth warheads besides gauging the efficiency and killing probability of the missile in a real time situation. It achieved close to zero circular error probability (CEP) accuracy.
A missile handling unit of the Army’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) fired the ballistic missile in a complete operational configuration from the launching complex-III of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea at about 10.05 am.
Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister Avinash Chander told this paper that the missile was tested for full range. “It was a perfect copy-book launch. Equipped with all indigenously developed advanced navigation and manoeuvring system, the missile achieved all its technical parameters, set out for this launch,” he said.
The missile trajectory was tracked by the DRDO radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations located along the coast. The downrange teams on board a naval ship deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal had monitored the terminal events and splashdown.
The entire flight path of the missile was smooth in accordance with pre-decided coordinates. The missile reportedly travelled around 340 km within eight minutes.
“Taken from a routine production lot, the missile was launched with an improved aided inertial navigation system and achieved single digit accuracy. The missile destroyed the target in less than 10 meters of distance,” said a scientist. Prithvi-II which weighs around 4.6 tonnes has the capability to carry 500 to 1000 kgs of warhead. It has a length of nine meters with one metre diameter thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engine and uses Advanced Inertial Guidance System (AIGS) with manoeuvring trajectory.
An SFC spokesman said such successful training launches clearly indicated the operational readiness to meet any eventuality and also established the reliability of this deterrent component of India’s strategic arsenal. Inducted in the Armed Forces in 2003, the missile is now a proven technology. The launch was part of a regular training exercise of the SFC.